In the blogs and forums I favor, there’s a buzz over the past few years about “intermittent fasting”.  The idea is that not eating all the time is healthy. As far as physical and emotional health benefits, the pop science seems intriguing and it meets my common sense filters, so why not try it?

There’s a few different versions. 16/8 is popular. That’s where you only eat in the same 8 hour window each day. Say, from 10 AM to 6 PM. That’s sounds helpful, something I would call “time-restricted eating” more than fasting. I can do that unintentionally depending on how my day rolls out. I want to fast though.

There’s “24 hours:. Pretty self-explanatory, where you don’t eat after dinner one day until dinner the next. There’s 5:2 where you eat a small number of calories, 500 or so, two non-consecutive days a week. All fine.

For me though, I’m trying full fasting. That’s no food from when I go to bed on Day 1, until when I get up in the morning on Day 3. A 36 hour fast. Two nights. That will give me the chance to feel hungry and give my digestive system a break. And I’m doing that every six days.

I like the idea of doing it weekly, but doing it the same day, like every Tuesday or every Sunday doesn’t seem sustainable. No Sunday brunch ever? No way. A birthday dinner on Tuesday means a cheat day? Nah. I’d rather be consistent. Every six days means the day of the week changes each time.

I put “FAST” as an all-day event in my Google Calendar, set it to repeat every six days, and follow along. It’s been three weeks so far, and it’s going great.

 

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